Jubilant tea party eyes GOP with suspicion

The poll found 58 percent of the nearly 1,200 respondents – and nearly 79 percent of a smaller tea party sample – said they would consider “supporting the creation of a new third party dedicated to reducing the size and scope of Washington” if “a new Republican majority fails to deliver on their promises.”

“Given this new data, the tea party is just as viable as the Republican and Democratic parties. It’s vibrant, it’s sustainable, and it is not going anywhere,” said Luntz, an architect of the 1994 GOP takeover of Congress.

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But Ned Ryun, president of a non-profit group called American Majority, which trains tea party candidates and activists, said the movement needs more organization, funding and focus to develop the infrastructure necessary to become a sustainable force in politics.

“They need to, in a systematic way, create a farm team, a bench, of effective and authentic conservative leaders at the state and local level – anything from school board to city council and county commission,” said Ryun, who lamented that some 2010 tea party candidates, including O’Donnell, were able to win tea party support simply because activists lacked alternatives.

Ryun’s group plans to announce a new training initiative later this month, and he told POLITICO that local tea party organizers would be wise to focus on “voter registration, and to work to hardwire their precincts and neighborhoods, so that they can become a real political machine that can turn out the vote, in 2011 and 2012.”

But Andrew Ian Dodge, the Maine state coordinator for the influential Tea Party Patriots umbrella coalition of local groups, said the electoral focus of many national tea party groups could diminish the movement’s ability to be a force in policy fights in the coming congress.

“I think the tea party groups that set themselves out as more issues-based and more policy-based are going to survive, while the ones that were more electorally based – basically Republican fronts – are probably going to disappear because they’ll be exhausted and burnt out from the cult-like way they’ve thrown themselves into it, or they’ll become disillusioned very quickly” with the legislative process.

Either way, Dodge said, the next few months will be critical in determining the future of the movement. “I have no idea what the tea party movement is going to look like on April 15, 2011, and I don’t’ think anyone does. Anybody who says they do is full of it.”

This is nothing more then a wave of emotion riding the tide around the country. So they get the House and the not Senate. And guess what, those who thought the last Congress was useless will be even more disappointed. Way to many ideologies floating around up there. Barely 2 years and the public get's fooled into thinking the Dem's had enough time to fix 30 years of predominantly Republican rule that has laid America to ruin. And just who was pumping all this money behind the various 'tea-party' candidates around the country ? Can you say 'special interest', the same ones who will continue to rake in billions on Wall-Street while the the rest of Corporate America with the help of those who voted for these buffoons strip this nation of every decent job out here, slash and burn health care, build more homeless shelters and prisons and then have the nerve to tell us that God loves us.

The narrative spun by the media regarding a tea party “tsunami” has been exposed as fraud. The fact is that as influential as the tea party members were in the primaries, the public face of the Tea Party got kicked in the teeth last night. Angle, Paladino, O’Donnell, Fiorina, Whitman, Miller, and (in all probability) Rossi all lost. Sarah Palin’s “mama grizzlies,” with the exception of Nikki Haley, are all toast. Furthermore, tea party house candidates lost more races than they won!

If this is what the American people wanted, so be it. I would caution that they should have been very careful in what they wished for. If I were in a position to make predictions, I would wonder that so many Republicans can't see the party demise from their houses.

The narrative spun by the media regarding a tea party “tsunami” has been exposed as fraud. The fact is that as influential as the tea party members were in the primaries, the public face of the Tea Party got kicked in the teeth last night. Angle, Paladino, O’Donnell, Fiorina, Whitman, Miller, and (in all probability) Rossi all lost. Sarah Palin’s “mama grizzlies,” with the exception of Nikki Haley, are all toast. Furthermore, tea party house candidates lost more races than they won!

With the Democrats telling themselves that the recession, not the policies is why they took a drubbing yesterday, the logical progression of things to come spells disaster for Democrats. There is a denial that the people reject the socialist/egalitarian model for government. And with this denial will come more of the same; with more of the same, the resentment will grow and spread.

Because the legislature needs cooperation with the senate, it will not be able to forward any bill to the president that Harry Reid does not agree to. And though Republicans control the legislature they will be helpless and ineffective at stopping President Obama from implementing the egalitarian agenda through executive order.

But things are changing with the people. People are educating themselves and it is making them alert to the ideology of Marx, Mao and Stalin. Tea Party gatherings discuss Enlightenment philosophy, the history and the struggles that gave us liberty, as they did in the taverns of the eighteenth century. They are beginning to see that we have become complacent about our freedom and that BS has taken us down this road. And, they are "enlightening' others; that is a game changer.

This should not change, we need to continue to watch what both sides are doing, and remind them that Republican or Democrat, if they do not follow the constitution we will vote them out next time and vote in someone who will.

With the Democrats telling themselves that the recession, not the policies is why they took a drubbing yesterday, the logical progression of things to come spells disaster for Democrats. There is a denial that the people reject the socialist/egalitarian model for government. And with this denial will come more of the same; with more of the same, the resentment will grow and spread.

Because the legislature needs cooperation with the senate, it will not be able to forward any bill to the president that Harry Reid does not agree to. And though Republicans control the legislature they will be helpless and ineffective at stopping President Obama from implementing the egalitarian agenda through executive order.

But things are changing with the people. People are educating themselves and it is making them alert to the ideology of Marx, Mao and Stalin. Tea Party gatherings discuss Enlightenment philosophy, the history and the struggles that gave us liberty, as they did in the taverns of the eighteenth century. They are beginning to see that we have become complacent about our freedom and that BS has taken us down this road. And, they are "enlightening' others; that is a game changer.

Libertarians and their educational establishments (Cato, von Mises, etc.) had better step up and quickly organise some crash courses for new members of Congress, incumbents and the rest of us pretty darn quickly........explain that libertarian philosophy has much in common with aspects of both the left and the right of the political spectrum, but nothing to do with totalitarianism..........that true freedom advocates civil and economic liberty AND tolerance of behavioural and economic diversity.

Only intellectual honesty, contrasted with the intellectual hypocrisy and dishonesty practised by most politicians, will permit a full discussion of the uncomfortable alternatives open to us now. In terms of spending cuts, everything must be on the table, including defense spending. If we have indeed reached the Keynesian "end-point" as suggested by some economists, then the Austrian School had better step into the discussion with the real, hard and potentially very distasteful and unsettling economic solutions which are the only way forward.

Guess Boehner is really going to have to "man up" and stop crying like a little girl every time he gets on camera. With the teabaggers nipping at his heels I imagine the waterworks will be free flowing on a consistent basis. Should be fun to watch, especially since Sarah is going to be on a rampage after her epic fail in Alaska.

One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest revisted. Jack Nicholson is a much better looking man than Boner, but Boner has taken over the job as bus driver. I will concede I was glad to see Nurse Ratchet got fired.

The Tea Party threw away New York's 23rd Congressional district in November of 2009, handing the district to a Democrat for the first time since the Civil War. The Democrat held onto the seat last night, with the Tea Party's candidate taking just 6% of the vote.

The Tea Party threw away a Senate seat with its backing of Christine O'Donnell in Delaware.

The Tea Party threw a Senate seat in Nevada with its backing of Sharron Angle.

If the Tea Party can't win in a traditionally-Republican district like New York's 23rd, and is willing to sacrifice Senate seats with candidates like O'Donnell and Angle, all it is proving is that it is, essentially, worthless as a political force.

In short, the results last night show that America did not vote for the Tea Party and its candidates.

America voted against the Democrats and President Obama -- just as America voted against Bush and the Republicans in 2006 and 2008.

In 2006 and 2008, the Democrats were the beneficiaries of the anti-Bush/Republican vote. Last night, the Republicans were the beneficiaries of the anti-Obama/Democrat vote.

If the Tea Party rabble thinks they received some kind of mandate then they are even crazier than we know them to be.

The Tea Party threw away New York's 23rd Congressional district in November of 2009, handing the district to a Democrat for the first time since the Civil War. The Democrat held onto the seat last night, with the Tea Party's candidate taking just 6% of the vote.

The Tea Party threw away a Senate seat with its backing of Christine O'Donnell in Delaware.

The Tea Party threw a Senate seat in Nevada with its backing of Sharron Angle.

If the Tea Party can't win in a traditionally-Republican district like New York's 23rd, and is willing to sacrifice Senate seats with candidates like O'Donnell and Angle, all it is proving is that it is, essentially, worthless as a political force.

In short, the results last night show that America did not vote for the Tea Party and its candidates.

America voted against the Democrats and President Obama -- just as America voted against Bush and the Republicans in 2006 and 2008.

In 2006 and 2008, the Democrats were the beneficiaries of the anti-Bush/Republican vote. Last night, the Republicans were the beneficiaries of the anti-Obama/Democrat vote.

If the Tea Party rabble think they received some kind of mandate then they are even crazier than we know them to be.

As was expected, the tsunami of grass roots activism sent a tidal wave of red across the electoral map and gave the House back to the Republicans, gave them near parity in the Senate and numerous governorships, state legislatures and lesser state posts. The message was historic and undeniable. But, even before the night was over, the talking heads of the Left (read: MSM) were already trying to downplay the results by pointing to the seats that the GOP didn’t take. Granted, it would have been nice to send Reid, Boxer, Frank, Coons, Brown, etc… into “early” retirement, but the lack of success in a handful of marquee races should not be allowed to overshadow the magnitude of what was accomplished….

You can add Michigan's traditionally-Republican Congressional District 9 to the Tea Party's list of abject failures.

In 2008, a Democrat took the seat for the first time in more than 30 years.

Last night, the Democrat retained the seat -- defeating the Tea Party-backed candidate.

If you can't win a traditionally-Republican seat when a Republican tide is sweeping the country, what does that say about the Tea Party and its candidates -- other than that they have vastly over-estimated their value and effect?